Supporting nursing and midwifery
students with dyslexia on clinical
placements
Location
Nursing and Midwifery
Burton 141
Sandwell: 154
Wolverhampton 149
Dudley 168
Walsall 162
Social Work
Approx 50 placements
Length of placement
Nursing and Midwifery
Social Work
• Equal value 50/50
• Midwifery – up to 60/40
• Nursing up to 300 hrs
simulation
• 200 days
– Yr 1 30 days
– Yr 2 70 days
– Yr 3 100 days
– Yr 1 80 days
– Yr 2 120 days
UG
PG
Key Drivers
• Concerns about managing
failing students
• Suitability Panel Remit
• Legislation
• Local Research
“Dyslexia” is
• “A specific learning difficulty which mainly affects the
development of literacy and language related skills”
• “Likely to be present at birth and lifelong in its effects”
• Information processing difficulties: working memory,
phonological processing, processing speed, automatic
skills development.
• Often resistant to conventional teaching methods, “but its
effects can be mitigated by appropriately specific
intervention”.
(Ref: British Dyslexia Association www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/aboutdyslexia/faqs.html [accessed 07/03/11].
Study Aims: opening phase
To identify
• -the main challenges to dyslexic student nurses in
achieving the professional standards of competence
relating to record keeping
• - how they can best be supported in the development of
these skills
• -what interventions that would be most acceptable and
effective
• -who should be involved in this process
• -where it should take place
Gaining perspectives and ideas
Student nurses with
dyslexia
10 individual semistructured interviews
• Midwifery: 2
• Mental Health:2
• Adult: 6
• Poster adverts / tutoring
system
Placement mentors
Focus Group interviews
• Acute Hospital (4)
• PCT
• 2/6 have dyslexia
• PPMs as co-facilitators
Students: perceived strengths
• Practical tasks (8/10)
• Communicating with patients; putting at
ease, extracting information, listening,
people reading (10/10)
Disclosure
Students
• 5 reported told all
mentors irrespective of
anticipated response
• 5 disclosed selectively
• General response: +ve
• A few less helpful
responses and actions
“Oh, but you have such a
pretty face”
Mentors
• Highest number of
mentees with dyslexia
reported by the 2 mentors
with dyslexia
• All believed had
mentored several
students with dyslexia
who had not disclosed
• Belief : willingness to
disclose related to life
stage
Key difficulties identified by students
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Knowing what to write and where to write it
Visual stress: clinical forms
Identifying key information and prioritising order
Learning and using professional terminology / phrasing in different
areas
Recording handover information
Admission forms: multitasking involved
Interruptions
Retaining information until time to document this
Correct spellings
Identifying “goalposts”
Key difficulties identified by mentors
• Varied with area and nature of clinical documentation
used
• Learning of correct spellings of drug names and medical
conditions
• Longer to complete records
• Handovers: speed and accuracy issues
• Identification, selection ad ordering of relevant information
• Short-term memory issues
• Sentence structuring
Intervention proposals
• Notion of a blank sheet
• Consider where interventions should take
place
• What these should consist of
• Who should be involved
• Ideas raised for both university and
placement settings
University based: students
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Clinical record writing introduction early in 1st year
Clarity on standards required: examples
Introduction to common documents
Generic skills development: e.g. writing succinctly,
spelling strategies, identifying and documenting key
information from scenarios, mock handovers
• Open to all, not just those with dyslexia
University based: mentors
• Provision of a mentor awareness sheet.
• Advance notice of students’ additional
support needs to allow time for preparation
and consultation.
Students: placement setting
• Lists of common terminology, key phrases,
correct spellings
• Document templates for each area and useful
phrases for each section
• Opportunity for repetition
• More time for completing records
• Better dyslexia awareness among mentors
• Provision of an awareness sheet to give out
voluntarily
Mentors: placement setting
• A “specialist” mentor in every work area as
a point of reference / adviser for other
mentors in the area and students
experiencing difficulties.
• Dyslexia awareness and support training for
all mentors.
Actions so far to encourage disclosure
Placement Awareness Sheet
• Baseline list of reasonable adjustments
• Option of adding further adjustments
• Fluid throughout course
• Decision to pass to placement mentor lies
with the student.
Actions so far to encourage disclosure
CAPD booklet statement to
• encourage disclosure
• make reasonable adjustments
• share placement awareness sheet
Actions so far to encourage disclosure
Handbook to enhance support for
students with dyslexia
• Tips for students
• Tips for mentors
• General information
• Signposts additional support
Dyslexia Champions Training Day
• Open initially to practice placement managers /
supervisors
• Positive attributes of dyslexia
• Locating dyslexia in neurodiversity arena
• Information processing differences
• Strategies to enhance reading speed accuracy and
confidence
• Strategies to aid clinical record writing
• Dyslexia simulations
• Posters to identify “Dyslexia Champions” in work areas
Actions in the pipeline
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Evaluation of Dyslexia Champions training
Posters to advertise Dyslexia champions
Follow up meetings
Generic skills development
Monitoring student disclosure through our
‘Suitability Panel’